According to the common opinion of the Arabs, there are seven heavens, one above another. The upper surface of each is believed to be nearly plane, and generally supposed to be circular, five hundred years’ journey in width. The first is described to be formed of emerald; the second of white silver; the third of large white pearls; the fourth of ruby; the fifth of red gold; the sixth of yellow jacinth; and the seventh of shining light. Some assert Paradise to be in the seventh heaven; others state that above the seventh heaven are seven seas of light, then an undefined number of veils, or separations, of different substances, seven of each kind, and then Paradise, which consists of seven stages, one above another. The first is the mansion of glory, of white pearls; the second, the mansion of peace, of ruby; the third, the garden of rest, of green chrysolite; the fourth, the garden of eternity, of green coral; the fifth, garden of delight, of white The most direct road and speediest conveyance to Paradise, according to the testimony of all confirmed opiophagi, is by means of that subtle drug, opium. The most common form in which it is taken is that of vapour, inhaled through a peculiarly-constructed pipe. Those used by the Siamese resemble in form the common narghilÈ, or hubble-bubble of the Levant. They consist of an empty cocoa-nut shell, in an orifice in the top of which a hollow wooden tube is inserted, and the opening hermetically closed, so as to prevent the escape of either air or smoke. In another hole in the side of the cocoa-nut shell, a common little bamboo tube, about eighteen inches long, is tightly fixed; a little earthen bowl, perforated at the bottom like a sieve, is filled with opium, and one or two pieces of fire being placed thereon, this bowl is fitted on the top of the wooden tube. The man who hands round this pipe holds with one hand the bottom of the cocoa-nut (which is half full of water), and with the other hand he presents the bamboo tube to the smoker, who, putting it to his mouth, inhales three or four whiffs of this most intoxicating narcotic. The effect is almost instantaneous. He sinks gently against the cushion set at his back, and becomes insensible to what is passing around. The pipe is passed round from mouth to mouth, so that half an hour generally intervenes between the first whiff taken by the first smoker, and the last sigh heaved by the last man, as he revives from his short, pleasant dream, into which the whiffing has thrown him. One old and inveterate Siamese smoker declared to a recent resident among them, that if he knew his life Opium smoking is not generally conducted on a plan so social. The Siamese may be considered as an exception to the general rule. The method pursued at Hong-Kong, of which we have received an account from a competent authority, is more a type of the opium-smoker in general, and the method he pursues. In a reclining position, on boards placed on tressels, ranged around long, disgustingly dirty rooms, may be seen, at all hours of the day, haggard beggars, with putrefying sores, whose miserable feelings of desperation and woe drive them here to obtain a partial alleviation, by steeping their senses in forgetfulness. The stem of the pipe used for smoking is made of hard wood, and would be taken for an English paper-ruler, about eighteen inches long, and an inch in diameter. The earthenware bowl or head screws on and off, at about three inches from the end. An assistant of the divan, sitting in a corner of the room, is constantly engaged in scraping and cleaning these heads, which, from the small size of the hole through which the opium is inhaled (about the size of a pin’s head), are apt to get clogged. The quantity of opium intended to be smoked, varying at a time from twenty to a hundred grains, is dipped carefully out of small gallipots, laid on a leaf, and charged for at the rate of a dollar per ounce. The opium is used by dipping into it the pointed end of a small wire, which is then applied This picture would, however, be incomplete, without a few more particulars concerning the individuals who give themselves up to indulgence in the drug. And for this we must again seek the aid of an experienced medical man, who for years lived and laboured in the midst of opium smokers. “Nothing on earth,” he states, “can equal the apparent quiet enjoyment of the opium smoker. As he enters the miserable scene of his future ecstasy, he collects his small change, the labour, or begging, or theft of the day, with which he supplies himself with his quantity of Chandu; then taking the pipe, which is furnished gratis, he reclines on a board covered with a mat, and with his head resting on a wooden or bamboo pillow, he commences filling his pipe. As he entered, his looks were the picture of misery, his eyes were sunk, his gait slouched, his step trembling, and his voice quivering, with a sallow cast of countenance, and a dull unimpressive eye. He “‘Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams,’ he withdraws the pipe, reclines his head, and gives himself up to the first calming effect of the drug. His next attempt confirms the comfort, and now no longer does he complain of racking limbs or aching bones; no longer does the rheum run from his eyes, and relaxed is the tightness of the chest, as he dwells with fond affection on the inspiring pipe. His second pipe being finished, he can now look round, and has time to gaze on what is going on; but his soul is still wrapped in the bliss that is anticipated from what remains of his allowance, for not until a third or fourth whiff do the feelings of positive pleasure arise. Then is felt a lightness of the head, a tingling in every limb—the eyes seem to be enlarged, and the ears sharpened to hearing, an elasticity, an inclination to mount on high is experienced—all pains are gone, and pleasure now “‘Things Seen for the first time, and things, long ago Seen, which he ne’er again shall see, do blend Strangely and brokenly with ghastly things Such as we hear in childhood, scorn in youth, And doubt in manhood, save when seen.’” In the narrative of the voyage of H.M.S.Samarang, Mr. A. Adams informs us, that in a large “‘He raves, his words are loose, As heaps of sand, and scattering wide from sense So high he’s mounted on his airy throne, That now the wind has got into his head, And turned his brains to frenzy.’ Unutterable melancholy feelings succeed to this somewhat pleasurable period of excitement, but a soft languor steals shortly across the senses, and the half-poisoned individual falls asleep. The next day there is great nausea and sickness of stomach, headache, and tormenting thirst, which makes you curse opium, and exclaim, with Shakespeare’s ‘King John,’ “‘And none of you will bid the winter come To thrust his icy fingers in my maw; Nor let my kingdom’s rivers take their course Thro’ my burnt bosom, nor entreat the North To make his bleak winds kiss my parched lips, And comfort me with cold.’” Dr. Madden tried, experimentally, the effects of opium—he commenced with a grain, which produced no perceptible effect, to this he afterwards added another grain. After two hours from commencing the operation, his spirits became excited. “My faculties,” he writes, From the communications of Dr. Medhurst may be learnt many important facts relative to this habit in China. Day by day, and year by year, the practice of opium-smoking prevails more and more among this people, and by and by it will doubtless have a powerful effect upon the destinies of the country. It is said, that the late Emperor used the drug; it is certain that most of the government officers do, and their innumerable attendants are in the same category. Opium is used as a luxury by all classes, and to a great extent, indeed so great, that it cannot fail to exhibit its effects speedily upon the mass of the inhabitants. In rich families, even if the head of the house does not use the drug, the sons soon learn to use it, and almost all are exposed to the temptation of employing it, as many of their friends and acquaintances are in the habit of smoking; and it is considered a mark of politeness to offer the pipe to a friend or visitor. Many persons fly to the use of the pipe when they get into trouble, and when they are afflicted with chronic or painful diseases, sleeplessness, &c. Several persons who have been attended for malignant tumours were made victims Many of the middling classes dissipate their money in this indulgence, and, among the lower classes, those who indulge in the use of opium are reduced to abject poverty. Having no property, furniture, or clothes to dispose of, their wives and children are sold to supply their ever-increasing appetite for the drug; and when these are gone, with greatly diminished strength for labour, they can no longer earn sufficient for their own wants, and are obliged to beg for their daily bread. As to the supply of opium, they must depend on the scrapings of other men’s pipes, and as soon as they are unable, by begging, to obtain the necessaries of life, together with the half-burnt opium, on which their very life depends, they droop and die by the roadside, and are buried at the expense of the charitable. Two respectable young men, the sons of an officer of high rank, well informed, having received a good education, accustomed to good society, and who excited great interest in the minds of those with whom they came in contact, lately died. So At Shanghae, just inside the north gate, in front of a temple, one of such destitute persons, unable to procure either food or opium, was lying at the last gasp, while two or three others with drooping heads were sitting near, who looked as if they would soon be prostrated too. The next day, the first of the group lay dead and stiff, with a coarse mat wound round his body for a shroud. The rest were lying down unable to rise. The third day another was dead, and the remainder nearly so. Help was vain, and pity was the only feeling that could be indulged. It may be judged of the extent of opium-smoking in China from the reports of the native Teapoas, inclosures in Sir J. Bowring’s Report. The inhabitants in the Chung-wan (Centre bazaar) are about 5,800. The number that smoke opium, merely because they like it, are upwards of 2,600. In the Hah-wan (Canton bazaar) there are upwards of 1,200. The number that smoke opium, merely because they like it, are upwards of 600. At Sheong-wan the number of male residents are 13,000; there are 3,000 opium-smokers. At Tai-ping-shan the number of inhabitants are 5,300 men; of these upwards of 1,200 smoke opium because they like it. The number of inhabitants in Ting-loong-chow are 2,500; the number of opium-smokers are reported at 400. Thus, out of 27,800 inhabitants, 7,800 of whom, or 26 per cent., are smokers of opium. Dr. McPherson, in writing of the Shikhs, informs us that most of the Shirdars are under the influence of spirits or of opium for eighteen hours out of the twenty-four. Their early use, both of the spirit and the drug, renders them indispensable through life. If deprived of their usual dose, the Shikh is one of the most wretched beings imaginable. Before engaging in any feast, the Shikh takes his opium, by which he is for a time excited, and this is soon followed by languor and inactivity. Talking of Runjeet Sing, who was at that time labouring under paralysis, from which eventually he died, he says he still used opium, so that little could be expected from remedial means. The Shikhs are forbidden the use of tobacco by the tenets of their religion, but find a ready substitute for it in opium, which is consumed in great quantities throughout the whole of the Punjaub, as well as among the protected Shikh states. While under the effects of this drug, the Shikh is a very different person to the same individual before he has taken it. In the former instance, he is active and talkative; in the latter, lazy and stupid. It has been imagined that the preparation of opium has an injurious effect upon those engaged therein; but Dr. Eatwell, of the Benares Agency, states that, “amongst the thousands of individuals, cultivators, and employÉs, with whom the factory is filled during the receiving and manufacturing seasons, no complaints are ever heard of any injurious effects resulting from the influence of the drug, whilst they all remain quite as free from general sickness as persons unconnected with the general establishment—in fact, if anything, more so. It occasionally happens that a casual visitor to the factory complains of giddiness or headache; but the European officers employed in the department, who pass the greater part of the day with “Infants, of a few months old, may be frequently seen lying on the opium-besmeared floor, under the vats, in which dangerous position they are left by their thoughtless mothers; but, strange to say, without any accident ever occurring. Here are abundant facts to show that the health of those employed in the opium-factory, and in the manipulation of the drug, is not exposed to any risk whatever; whilst the impunity with which the drug is handled by hundreds of individuals, for hours together, proves that it has no endemic action; for I am inclined to consider the soporific effect experienced by the vat-treaders as produced through the lungs, and not through the skin.” This may be considered, therefore, as setting the question According to a Chinese petition presented on one occasion to the Emperor, it is believed that the English, by introducing opium into that country, did so as a means of its subjugation, presuming, we may suppose, that the Celestials were invincible, except by some such cabalistic means. “In the History of Formosa,” says this document, “we find the following passage: ‘Opium was first produced in Kaoutsinne, which by some is said to be the same as Kalapa or Batavia. The natives of this place were at the first sprightly and active, and, being good soldiers, were always successful in battle. But the people called Hung-maou (red-haired) came thither, and having manufactured opium, seduced some of the natives into the habit of smoking it. From these, the mania for it spread rapidly through the whole nation; so that in process of time the natives became feeble and enervated, submitted to foreign rule, and ultimately were completely subjugated. Now the English,’ it continues, ‘are of the race of foreigners called Hung-maou. In introducing opium into this country, their purpose has been to weaken and enfeeble the Central Empire. If not early aroused to a sense of our danger, we shall find ourselves, ere long, on the last step towards ruin.’” The degradation or subjugation of the Chinese is much more likely to be affected by a habit concerning which we hear less, but which is infinitely more disastrous than the indulgence in opium. This is the brandy-drinking customs of the north. This horrible drink, distilled from millet, is the Chinaman’s delight, and he swallows it like water. Many ruin themselves with brandy, as others do with gaming. In company, or even alone, they will pass whole days and nights in drinking It is unfortunately the custom for the distillers to supply brandy on credit for a whole year, so that a tippler may go on for a long time drawing from this inexhaustible spring. His troubles will only begin in the last moon—the legal period of payment. Then, indeed, he must pay, and with usury; and as money does not usually become more plentiful with a man from the habit of getting drunk every day, he has to sell his house and his land, if he has any, or to carry his furniture and his clothes to the pawnbroker’s. In the south, there is less brandy-drinking, and more gambling; but between the two there is little to choose, as either impoverishes those who devote themselves to its service, and to which even opium-smoking is preferable. Mr. Meadows, the Chinese Government Interpreter at Hong-Kong, says, Without pursuing this question further, there is evidently a fascination in the pipe to the opium-smoker, to a degree of which the most ardent lover of a pipe of tobacco has but a faint idea. In proportion as the indulgence in the drug produces a state of happiness far transcending all that the votary of the weed experiences, so does its influence over him increase; and if it is difficult for the habitual smoker of tobacco to forego the pleasure of his accustomed pipe, it is therefore ten times more difficult for the smoker or eater of opium to renounce for ever, a custom which brings with it, even in imagination though it may be, tenfold more pleasures, and a more ecstatic enjoyment. This is the universal evidence of all who have been inquired of, and of all who have had intercourse with opiophagi in all parts of the world. What fascinating influence this Paradise in prospect has upon those who indulge in journeys thither, may be imagined from the notorious fact, that in Bristol, Coleridge went so far as to hire men—porters, hackney-coachmen, and others—to oppose by force his entrance into any druggist’s shop. But as the authority for stopping him was derived only from himself, so these poor men found themselves in a fix; for when the time and the According to Darwin, even poultry have mounted the ladder to within a few steps of Elysium; for that worthy informs us, that they were fed for the London market by mixing gin and opium with their food, and keeping them in the dark, but that “they must be killed as soon as they are fattened, or they become weak and emaciated, like human drunkards.” We have no recording pullet to inform us of the visions of the barn-door family under the influence of the beatific drug, nor “Confessions of a Chanticleer,” to tell of the pains that succeeded a too-free indulgence in the little pills; all we learn from the account is, that the vision of Paradise very closely preceded its reality, for the feathered bipeds were dosed and killed. The human biped for half a century continues his dream—and all through that period it is but a dream—yet that he is happy while under its influence there can be no doubt; and when he has reclined on his couch, obtained his pipe, and sunk into the beatific oblivion so coveted by the Asiatic, we may imagine his exclaiming with the Peri, after obtaining the trickling tear, “Joy, joy for ever! my task is done; The gates are passed, and heaven is won. Oh! am I not happy? I am—I am. To thee, sweet Eden! how dark and sad Are the diamond turrets of Shadukram, And the fragrant bowers of Amberabad. Joy, joy for ever! my task is done; The gates are passed, and heaven is won!” |